Gene Simmons recently told Adam Carolla about hearing Van Halen, “All of a sudden, I hear something symphonic. Almost like ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ by The Beatles. When it first comes on, you go, ‘What is that?!’ Y’know, three-part harmony. And I go up, and I guess, ‘There must be three guitar players playing this stuff.’ And I go to the edge of the railing up there, ‘Hey man, how you doing?’ A lot of ‘Hey man”s.”
“And I’m looking on the stage,” Simmons continued. “There’s only one guitar player doing that stuff, one great bass player, killer drummer, and this great looking guy with long blonde hair, bare-chested, doing acrobatics. I said, ‘What is that?’ And within the first three songs, I was backstage, and I convinced the guys to sign with me on Man of 1000 Faces, my production company, and I flew him to New York. On my dime.”
It turns out that Simmons was so taken by the band that he purchased at least one member a gift to help accentuate his image. More importantly, he produced a demo for them at one of the most famous recording studios of all time.
“I buy Dave [Lee Roth] his first, I don’t know, high heels or whatever, leather pants and all that. Because I want them to audition for Aucoin, our manager and all that. But before then, decide to go into Electric Lady and do 15 songs, a 24-track demo using a guy named Dave Whitman who mixed Humble Pie and all that legitimate, y’know, stuff.”
“And one of the 15 songs was a song called ‘House of Pain.’ Now, for all you Van Halen fans, this is not the ‘House of Pain’ that they eventually wound up recording. This is the original version, which bears no resemblance. In fact, that song under the name ‘House of Pain’ was never recorded, and it’s a steamroller. I can’t believe that the band never used that. So that’s the version we do live. And I’m telling you, as soon as it starts, it’s like zero to 60.”
